Your own Kubernetes cluster, run for you.

Frequently asked

Is a single node enough?

For learning, staging and most early-production workloads, yes. Even the smallest size (2 vCPU / 4 GB, dedicated) comfortably runs a typical web app, its database and ingress for your first few thousand users. skube runs on skube: this very website is served from our own single-node cluster. And when multi-node HA starts paying off, your manifests move to an HA cluster unchanged.

Can I run more than one app on a cluster?

Yes, Kubernetes was built for that. Separate apps with namespaces and route each domain through the included ingress controller. Even a skube1 comfortably runs several small apps side by side; the only limit is the node’s resources. One flat price, as many apps as fit.

Can I run more than one cluster?

Yes. Each order is its own dedicated cluster, so for a second environment like staging, just place another order.

Who runs it?

We provision and stand up the cluster for you and keep the base healthy. You get full cluster-admin, so everything inside the cluster is yours to run.

What happens when I outgrow it?

You migrate, and because it is stock Kubernetes, nothing about your workloads changes. The same manifests and GitOps that ran here apply cleanly to an HA cluster when you need multi-node or higher availability.

Can I bring my own ingress or domain?

Yes. With full cluster-admin you can install any ingress controller, cert-manager and CRDs you like, and point your own domain at the cluster.

Is my data backed up?

We keep nightly snapshots of your whole cluster (the last 7 days) as disaster recovery: if the server fails, we restore it. Treat them as a safety net, not an archive; a restore brings back the whole node as of last night, not single files. For anything you cannot afford to lose, also run your own backup tooling, you have full cluster-admin.

How does billing work?

A flat monthly price per cluster, VAT included, nothing on top. Creating an account is free; you pay when you order a cluster. Cancel anytime from the dashboard and billing stops at the end of the period. No seats, no egress metering: 20 TB of traffic is included, and if you regularly push past it we will talk to you first, never surprise-bill.

How long until my cluster is ready?

Every cluster is verified healthy by a human before handover: typically within hours of your order, always within one business day. You get an email the moment your kubeconfig is ready in the dashboard.

What if I break my cluster?

Break it freely, that is what it is for. Worst case we restore last night’s backup or reprovision a fresh cluster, at no extra cost. You cannot break anything we cannot put back.

Why not just run k3s on a cheap VPS?

You can, and then you are the cluster’s sysadmin: OS patching, upgrades, certificates, backups, restores when the box dies. skube costs more than a bare VPS because it deletes exactly that work. The time you spend is on Kubernetes, not on keeping Kubernetes alive.

Who handles upgrades, and is there downtime?

We upgrade Kubernetes and the OS (immutable Talos Linux) for you. On one node an upgrade means a brief restart, announced ahead of time: a blip of minutes, not an evening of your time.

What happens if the server fails?

Hetzner’s platform handles most hardware failures by restarting the VM with disks intact. If a cluster stays down, email us and we restore it from the nightly backup: getting it back is our top priority. A restore can lose up to a day of changes, so keep your own backups for critical data.

Can I move a Docker Compose app to Kubernetes here?

Yes, and that is the point. Instead of running Docker Compose until you hit the migration wall, you write Kubernetes manifests from day one on a small, cheap cluster. Translate your Compose services into Deployments and Services once, and you are on standard Kubernetes with nothing left to port later.

What happens to my Compose volumes?

They become PersistentVolumeClaims backed by your cluster’s SSD. A database from Compose moves over as a Deployment or StatefulSet with a PVC: the same data model, just declared.

Do I have to rewrite my setup to scale later?

No. Because skube is stock Kubernetes, the manifests you apply here are the manifests you apply to an HA cluster when you outgrow one node. kubectl apply -f against the bigger cluster, unchanged. You pay the Kubernetes learning curve once, at hobby scale, and skip the rewrite entirely.